Neutaconkanut Hill Conservancy to celebrate Earth Day

CLASSIC CLEAN-UP: This will be a familiar scene Saturday for four hours when the Neutaconkanut Hill Conservancy holds its annual Earth Day Project that will featuring the planting of trees and general clean-up of the historic and highest point in the City of Providence.

(Submitted photo)

Posted
Thursday, April 20, 2017 3:06 pm

By Pete Fontaine

Every year around this time, the Neutaconkanut Hill Conservancy holds an important Earth Day Project geared towards upgrading and improving the beauty of the natural forest that’s located on the highest point in the City of Providence.

This year’s project, as spokesperson Eli Panichas explained earlier this week, “will include the planting of indigenous fruit trees” and will take place this Saturday, April 22 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

“We welcome any and all volunteers to join members of the [Neutaconkanut Hill] Conservancy,” Panichas said.

However, she said that in the event of heavy rain, the well-planned four-hour planting project would be cancelled.

Panichas, a long-standing public relations specialist who previously worked with top-ranking agencies and continues her volunteer work with several Greek churches in Rhode Island, explained that “We are recreating a custom of years ago with the planting of apple and pear trees when those trees were planted for the enjoyment of the neighborhood.”

Perhaps even more important, Panichas, who is steeped with knowledge about the Hill, said, “is that those trees provided food for the wildlife there and, as with all three, they will help control erosion of Neutaconkanut Hill.”

As time allows, volunteers who show up Saturday will join Neutaconkanut Hill conservancy officials and members in a general clean-up as well as preparing the more than five miles of trails that are used by countless numbers of seasonal walkers and hikers.

Panichas said the volunteer work force will meet at the top of Hill at Neutaconkanut Hill Park in Providence, 58 Legion Memorial Drive. All volunteers are urged to wear work clothes and appropriate footwear and the Conservancy will provide gloves, tools, bug spray, snacks and water. The event is sponsored by the Providence Parks Department and Neutaconkanut Hill Conversancy, a non-profit that prides itself in preserving the beauty of the only natural forest in Providence that’s located on the Johnston town line.

“The Hill is rich in history,” Panichas said. “The Great Hill of Neutaconkanut was the northwest boundary in the land agreement between Roger Williams and the Narragansett Sachems and is the beginning of the city and state.”